Fallen Stars
by DorothyNightingale
Summary: From sassy city girl to hunted demigod, Titania's life changes the minute something strange falls from the sky and attacks her and her best friend Portia. She's like 'tots' 'legit' not ready for this new life and with a new prophecy issued after the second giant war about the falling of stars, finding things to match an orange camp shirt should be the least of her worries.
1. My Best Friend is Psycho or Something

Chapter One: I Think My Best Friend is a Psycho... or Something

It's not that I didn't know about the greek gods, it's just that I never expected them to become a relevant part of my life. I mean I've read my Homer; okay, fine I was forced into in eighth grade but still that counts, so I know about Athena and stuff but actually coming face to face with a legit god was not on my bucket list. My name is Titania, yes like the queen of the fairies we get it; my parents were hippies- or at least my mom was. I never knew my dad which kind of ties into this whole greek mythology come to life thing I'm dealing with at the moment. Let me just catch you all up.

I'm pretty normal I'd say uh, I live in a house with my mom in San Antonio, Texas. I go to school I guess and I've got lots of friends, lots. I'm a freshman in highschool and already I've been asked out by like a dozen cute guys... which I will never get to know since I'm currently facing my own mortality. Anyway, like I said my dad died when I was really young according to my mom, she doesn't like to talk about him much. I don't know, what else do you guys want to know about me? I guess I should tell you about Portia since this is her own freaking fault.

I met Portia this year like I met a lot of other girls since it was high school and everyone's kind of meeting new people. She's pretty, I guess I mean all my friends are or else why would I be friends with them? No JK but seriously though, I've honestly just noticed pretty people are just much more genuine and sweet than ugly people. I think I read that online somewhere. Portia's taller then me which, okay fine I'm a little jealous of not because I'm short because I promise I'm not short- I'd just rather be a couple of inches taller so I could look more like those models you see on Project Runway.

Anyway yeah, Portia's pretty cool, I wouldn't say we're best friends but like she seems to think we are, and maybe that's what's keeping us from making it official because I don't want someone clingy or someone who puts labels on things like, ew. Okay here's the weird thing about Portia that I thought was totally strange until this morning; she wears a dagger on her waist. Like at first I thought it was decoration or something but like the teachers don't even notice it. It's always there I swear and nobody notices it but me. Like isn't there a rule about no weapons on campus or something IDK.

Uh I am so bad at telling this story. See even now I'm interrupting just to tell you all this. Let me just start from where things started getting weird; this morning I woke up not to my mom banging on my door or my cat peeing on my head but to freaking Portia in my room. She looked panicked and had her knife in her hand which I'd never seen her do before. Like that was the first time I could actually confirm that it was a knife. So like, slow down Portia! Just woke up here, I've got to get my coffee before you try to slice my head off. Thanks girl.

"What the-" I say but Portia silences me.

"There's one here," she whispers.

Like what? First of all how did Portia get into my house and when did she become so serious all of a sudden? I would have totally snapchatted my other friends a pic of her holding the knife like a nerd if my door hadn't suddenly burst down at that moment. I screamed, like obviously and the most terrifying of terrifying things came through the door. You guys arn't going to believe this but I'm not kidding you it was a giant scorpion. And yes I know you all are like really Titania? A bug? It's probably tiny. But no! This scorpion is HUGE like big as my desk huge. It's red and it's giant tail swings dangerously close to Portia's thighs.

"Titania get out of here," Portia screams and I see her thrust the knife towards the monster.

Literally what is going on, I wonder. The only exit is through my window so I throw it open and climb through into the garden and naturally I land in a rosebush. Just so you all know, I'm not the worst best friend ever. I didn't just leave Portia behind, I watched her from the window as she got a few good swings in and actually managed to stab the scorpion in the eye. Okay I've seen the Hunger Games I know what blood looks like but I'm not prepared when the scorpion's tail comes down and stings Portia in the back. It's pretty gruesome. Portia comes back with another swing and gone is the scorpion's stinger. Weirdly enough, after that the monster dissolves into dust, leaving the stinger behind.

Checking to see if the cost is clear I climb back into my bedroom, a look of amazement on my face.

"Did you just like, kill that thing?" I ask, running over to Portia's side.

Portia nods but I can tell she's having trouble speaking. I look at the gash on her back. It doesn't look to deep but then I remember some scorpions maybe all, are poisonous. OMG, my best friend just got poisoned. What am I supposed to do?

"Do you want me to call the ambulance?" I ask. "I"ll just call them," I decide and pull out my phone. Before I can so much as dial three digits, Portia takes the phone away from me and starts calling someone else.

"Hey," I complain. "So not cool."

The phone rings a few times and since Portia can't lift the phone up to her ear she puts it on speaker phone so I can listen in.

"Hello?" says the phone.

"Ambrosia," Portia groans, or something like that. "I need ambrosia now. Hurry. I'm at Titania's house."

I don't know who or what the heck ambrosia is suppose to be but I don't see why it's not more important than calling the police. BTW where is my mom in all this?

"Portia are you hurt?" the phone says in an urgent tone. "Hang in there, I'm on my way."

The phone hangs up and Portia leans back on my new pink carpet. I cringe and hold back the urge to ask her not to bleed on my new rug. Now they'll be bloodstains on it and I don't know how to get those out of an expensive carpet.

"Okay like bad time to ask," I say pacing back and forth. "But um what the hell just happened and who were you talking to? It better not be some random stranger because I don't want them knowing my address."

Portia groaned and rolled over on one side. Yep, definitely won't get those stains out of the carpet.

"Titania you're a demigod," Portia said and I can tell she's putting what little strength she can muster into talking to me. "I came to protect you."

"Ha ha JK, right," I say, rolling my eyes. "You can all come out with the hidden prank cameras now. It's not funny anymore." I reach down and touch my carpet. "Is this even real blood?"

"Yes," Portia says, her face strained.

Immediately I whip the stuff off my hands. I've never seen Portia like this before and I'm starting to wonder if she's really hurt as badly as she looks.

"Okay what's a demigod," I say but my question isn't answered. OMG Portia just died. Or maybe just blacked out. Either way this isn't good. Will someone please help me over here?


	2. I Fly Cross Country

Author's note: Hey guys so as you could probably tell from chapter one, I'm writing this book in a little bit of a different style than I normally do but it's actually really fun. I hope you get a few laughs out of it. What do you guys think of Titania? Who do you think her godly parent is? :)

Chapter Two: I Fly Cross Country

Okay good, it turns out Portia isn't actually dead. I just found a pulse. My mom is legit nowhere in the house, like I'm totally freaking out at this point BTW. Holy mother of what the hell was that noise? There's the sound of breaking glass and splintering wood from the front of the house. Immediately I wonder if it's another one of those scorpion things so I grab Portia's knife just to be safe. A boy in his mid teens rushes in with a sword in his hand. As soon as he sees Portia on the ground and a knife in his hand his sword flicks to me and I realize how guilty I must look.

"Identify yourself!" demands to boy. "What are you?"

"I'm just Titania," I say, throwing my hands in the air, letting the knife clatter to the ground. "Chill man, just help the dying girl before you try and kill me."

The boy's eyes flick from me to Portia and I can tell he's thinking through his options. Finally he puts down his sword and rushes to Portia's side.

The boy is kind of cute, in a geeky way. He's got sandy brown hair that's been swept back and beneath his breast plate he's got on an ugly color of orange t shirt. I watch as he produces a little plastic bag with a lemon square in it and he puts part of it in Portia's mouth. Maybe this guy is her secret boyfriend or something. That would have made Portia way cool to have a secret boyfriend but she should have at least told me.

For some reason that lemon square helps Portia a lot because in a matter of minutes she's able to sit up again. Without asking, new boy grabs my satin pillows and uses them to prop up my friend. Rude. I slide off my bed and over to Portia's side, hoping to beat new boy to the sympathy train.

"Are you alright?" I ask.

Portia looks at me a nods. "Yeah, I'm fine," she says and looks at new boy. "Thank you," she says. "I don't know what I would have done without you."

"I was trying to call the police," I mutter but immediately hope neither of them heard me. Now is probably not the best time to ruin the moment between them, whatever is going on between them.

"We need to get Titania to camp," Portia says, breaking eye contact with the boy. "I doubt she's in any real danger as long we keep moving. It was just pure chance that Scorpio landed in our area but I think I only finished him for a couple of nights."

"What is going on?" I demand. "You guys legit sound like total nerds right now, I can't understand a word you're saying."  
"What's wrong with being a nerd?" the new boy asks as he stands up in his armored breastplate and sheathes his sword.

"Nothing, nothing," I say, casting my gaze down to my boots. "What was that loud crash earlier anyway?"

"Oh," says the boy, looking embarrassed. "That was Pretzel's fault. You see he's a bit blind."

Okay what mother in her right mind would name their child 'Pretzel'. Apparently one who is not naming their child and just naming a freaking pegasus that is holy cow; sitting in a hole in the middle of my living room.

"What the hell!" I scream running to the hole in my living room.

The winged horse gets up and tosses its head around a few times before spotting me and stupidly side stepping away.

"There's a hole in my living room!" I exclaim throwing out my arms out to help exaggerate the size of this enormous hole. If my mother was home- when my mother gets home, she's going to explode into a fine gold dust when she sees this.

"We'll fix it later," says the boy as we all climb aboard, I kid you not- a pegasus named Pretzel.

The winged horse beings to flap its wings and we take off into the sky, me admittedly screaming the whole time until the sudden change in altitude levels out and we're flying at a smoother pace over the city of San Antonio. It's so hard to resist the urge to take out my phone and snap a selfie of my hair being whipped by the wind and the clouds matching my lace outfit so perfectly. I have to remind myself that none of this is possible and that really I should still be asleep in bed.

"How to the muggles not see us?" I ask, looking down at the people below.

Portia laughs. "Muggles," she repeats.

I feel a cringe of embarrassment as I realize I must have made some sort of error.

"She means mortals Portia," says her friend. "It's an easy mistake. The mortals don't see us because of the mist. It's sort of this cloaking device that makes them see something practical instead of the supernatural. For example if one were to look up this fine saturday morning, they'd probably see a rather large bird flying across the sky and nothing else."

I hold onto Pretzel's hide as we hid a bit of turbulence. The winds pick up and we sail for almost an hour before I start to get hungry.

"Can we stop for something to eat?" I ask. "I thought we just needed to get out of the area."  
"No we can't stop," says Portia coldly. "And we're going to Camp Half-blood no question about it. That's in Long Island by the way so buckle in, this is going to be a long ride."

Okay like what is up with Portia? Ever since she got stung by the giant bug she's been totally rude to me which is like not cool. Most of my friends praise me for like everything and I'm not saying that in a prissy way, that's just how it is. Portia's usually so much less cool than me but now she's acting like it's always been me wanted to be best friends with her and not the other way around.

By hour three, the thrill of riding a pegasus is completely gone. I want to get off the bony blind creature. We've already collided into three slow moving birds, an airplane wing and an office building. I think this poor horse has had enough. The boy who's name I learn is Avery tells me about Camp Half-blood which is basically a camp for kids with godly parents. Wait what hold your horses, and I don't mean you Pretzel, I mean no surprise there, I am pretty gorgeous although now I regret not paying attention in latin, that probably a flatline on my snapchat story as well.

Pause. I feel like I'm coming off too snotty to you guys. You're suppose to like your narrator right? Okay so like tell me if I need to tone it down or not because like I want everyone to know that I'm actually a really good person, I just sometimes rub off the wrong way. Anyway back to the story.

We land, finally after passing over a lot of trees. From above I can see lots of little buildings down below and as we get closer, more kids in bright orange t shirts. What is the place? My legs turn to jelly as my feet hit the ground and Avery helps me regain my balance. I'm in front of a big white and blue house with a front porch and nice outdoor furniture. An older man in a wheelchair is sitting at a table playing some sort of card game with holy cow- a goat man. This day just keeps getting stranger and stranger.

"Chiron," says Avery as we approach the man in the wheelchair. He looks up at us as we approach and puts down his cards.

"Ah, Portia you were successful in retrieving another halfblood, very good job," says the man named Chiron. "What is your name young lady?" he asks me.

For a second I look into this old dude eyes and I see so much... oldness. Like no, I'm not explaining this right but this guy's eyes seem almost older than seems possible, but then the moment is gone.

"I'm Titania," I say with a smile.

"I'm guessing undetermined," Chiron says, turning back to his card game. "Portia why don't you show her around, get her acquainted with the lifestyle."

Portia groans and I'm taken by surprise. "Can't someone else do it?" she asks. "I've been living in Texas for the past few months, I want to get back to my cabin."

Chiron seems surprised by this as well and flicks his eyes up to meet hers for a brief second.

"Well then have Avery do it," he says as he again turns back to his card game.

"Avery's coming with me," Portia says, "I haven't seen him in a month either."

"Dangit I'll do it," says the goatman throwing down his cards. "I'm losing anyway."

The goat man gets up and I can't believe what I'm looking at. Like flying horse, I can understand that. They're pretty and graceful and you always wanted one as a kid, but hairy goat man- uh uh, I ain't getting close to that thing.

"Sylvester," says the goat man, introducing himself. "Good to meet you. Let's get this over with."

I'm a little hurt that nobody wanted to take me on a tour. Shouldn't people be excited for this? I'm new, fresh meat. Isn't someone going to give me a little attention around here. The only thing I realize that makes me stand out here is the fact that I'm not wearing an attention grabbing fire cone orange t shirt which I pray to God I don't have to wear, or god(s) I guess.

Sylvester takes me to the cabins first which are all lined up in two 'U' shapes within each other. The inner ring has cabins that are much bigger and fancier than the ones on the outer which are rather plain looking to be honest.

"When you get claimed, you'll be put into a cabin according to your parentage," he says in a bored, flat tone.

We go around the camp and I see some amazing things, archery, a rockwall, a training gym all sorts of things that I can safely say I didn't expect to see when I woke up this morning. Finally Sylvester leads me to one of the inner ring cabins, a rather plain one with a golden pharmacy symbol with the snakes on it. We walk up to the porch and push open the screen door to see a couple of blonde kids lying around on their beds, holding portable fans over their faces like they were melting in the heat. These guys obviously don't know what it's like to live in Texas.

"Regular or undermined," a boy asks. His voice sounds flat as well and he hardly glances up as we enter.

"Undetermined," says Sylvester, pushing me forward.

There are some groans and someone tells me to take the bed in the back, farthest from the air conditioning but I realize my mistake too late. I can't tell what cabin this is but I don't want to ask in case I offend anyone. All the kids in here are either blonde or sketchy looking; not the most welcoming cabin.

Okay so like basically to wrap things up for now. I'm like literally a million miles from home at a summer camp when it's not even summer yet and to top it all off apparently my dad is a god. K so bye.


	3. Orange is the New Fire of Hades

Chapter Three: Orange is the New Color I Want to Burn in Hades  
I hate orange. Rank orange on a scale from one to ten I'd give it a negative eleven. It goes with absolutely nothing, it's too neon and I'm pretty sure it's giving me a headache. Of course that's the color of the shirt I have to wear and as I change into it I'm pretty sure one seventh of my soul shriveled up and died. As I look in the mirror I see a half mexican girl with smeared make up which I quickly fix and long back hair that needs to be braided back. Once I make myself look acceptable again I notice the orange t shirt and my self esteem lowers back down to like a five, maybe five and a half.

No joke, they legit put me in a cabin full of thieves? Who's brilliant idea was that? As soon as I get back, and put my shirt down on the bunk I turn around for one second and it's gone. That was my favorite vintage pink blouse. I bet it was that tall skinny girl. Jokes on her, she's too tall to pull it off. Not that I'm short. I promise I'm not short.

"Hey there," says a voice.

I whirl around expecting to catch a thief red handed but instead I'm faced with a tall blonde boy well into his teenage years.

"I'm Travis," says the boy. "Co cabin leader of the Hermes cabin, welcome."  
I smile and take his hand. "Good to meet you," I was going to say but no, I legit kid you not. This idiot had a buzzer in his hand. Like who does that? Six year olds that's who.

"Sorry," laughs the boy. "We do it to everyone. We're the sons and daughters of the god of thieves, messengers and practical jokes," he smiles on the last part.

"And the internet," says one of the boys who had been watching us.

"Of course," Travis says. "If it wasn't for our dad there wouldn't be instagram, facebook, snapchat, twitter, basically anything but Vine; Dionysus invented that."

"That's great and all," I say, remaining a good distance away from the boy. "But how can you all be the sons and daughters of the same god, that's kind of gross right, like arn't you all pretty similar in age?"

Travis laughs. "Our dad Hermes, like the other Olympians is... omnipresent shall we say. He can exist in many places at once. Actually," he said changing the subject. "I've come to get you for dinner. Hermes cabin let's roll out."  
I follow the ten or so blonde kids to a very large dinning patio where lots of other kids were gathering at each table. I haven't even realized how late it was because of the Pegasus flight and the weird time zone shift. They have us sit by cabin so I don't get to sit with Portia like I'd planned. I still haven't figured out why she's mad at me and I spot her sitting at a table of her own with a couple of other kids. When I wave to her, she doesn't wave back.

I start to wonder where all the food is when weird girls dressed in all green come out with silver platters and serve the campers dinner. There's lots of things to choose from but I take only a little platter. I'm on a diet after all. Then the kids start tossing their food into this big fire which someone explains to be is what you do to please the gods. Weird, I know right but after I've burned a good portion of my meal I'm left with almost nothing. Darn this diet.

Okay so I learn some things about Camp Half Blood during dinner that I should probably explain. Chiron, the man I met before, he's actually a centaur which is this freaky looking half man half horse thing but by this point that almost seems normal. He runs the camp, and this other guy, maybe seventeen or eighteen is the activities director but only temporarily because he's going to college soon or something. There's a short announcement about my arrival at camp where I stand and people guess at who my godly parent is.

"Remember," says the activities director. "Capture the flag is tomorrow. Currently we're back to Athena vs Ares so team up!"

There's a roar from two of the east tables and I take that as our cue to go. I catch a couple of the Hermes kids snatching some silverware out of the corner of my eye but decide to ignore it. As we head back to our cabin, I try to catch Portia's eye but she doesn't see me so I'm stuck with my own cabin.

I realize I haven't told you guys about my necklace yet. It sounds stupid but I use to love fairies when I was little and ever since I can remember I've had this little silver girl with wings on a chain that I still wear today. My mom doesn't even remember who gave it to me. That's why as long as I'm in the Hermes cabin, this necklace does not leave my neck. If anyone dares lay a finger on it while I'm sleeping tonight I will personally slice their throats out.

That night I don't sleep well. The mattress is uncomfortable and I toss and turn so much someone throws a pillow at me. It's all too weird, and even after calling my mom four times this evening I never got a reply. Maybe there's bad cell reception here or something. I've noticed most other kids don't even have phones. There's so much to think about it's amazing I get any sleep at all. As soon as I close my eyes though it feels like I have to wake up again.

"Rise and shine," says Travis or maybe it's his twin Connor, either way I'm not happy to see either of them.

"What time is it?" I mumble.

"Time to get up, you've overslept," says the other twin as he passes me on the way to the restroom.

I look around and notice all the other campers are already dressed and making their beds or finding something else to do. My hand flies immediately to my neck and the reassuring feeling of the fine, silver chain between my fingers calms me down. Someone was nice enough to let me borrow their pajamas last night, however ugly they may be and so I changed back into my only outfit involving a certain disgustingly bright orange t-shirt.

At breakfast I see Portia but again I'm unable to locate her before lessons start for the day and our cabins are separated. My lessons proceed in this order; lesson number one; I suck at everything. Okay maybe not everything but so far canoeing is not my thing, I fell into the lake... twice. Sword fighting, I might as well be trying to run a brick through with a popsicle stick, everyone else in the cabin is a zillion times better than me. Who needs sword fighting anyway? I mean like what's the worst that could happen? Surely that scorpion could have been killed with lots more practical things like bug spray for instance, just throwing that out there.

I can't believe how exhausted I am just by lunchtime. After eating, the whole camp gets an hour rest period and I finally get a chance to talk to Portia.

"Hey girl," I say, walking over to her as if we were at school again.

Portia forces a smile and lets me sit down across from her on a park bench.

"What's up?" I say.

"Nothing much," Portia says submissively. She doesn't sound like she really wants to talk to me at the moment.

"You okay?" I ask. "You've been acting weird ever since we got to camp and it's like weird."

Apparently my vocabulary doesn't extend beyond the word 'weird'.

Portia turns so me, her face turning a little pink as she speaks. "Titania, look. I'm not really who you think I am," she says. "I was acting."

"What?" I say, stunned by Portia's words.

Portia takes a deep breath and plunges forward. "I was acting this whole time," she explains. "I'm not into magazines and pop music and popular stuff. I just needed to be friends with you to get you to camp. It was my mission and now that I've achieved it, well I don't really know if we should um," she stumbled then seemed to regain her focus. "Look Titania maybe somewhere deep inside there's a shred of realness in you but when I think of you all I see is this fake popular girl who's vain and obsessed with the status quo," she let out a breath. "Gods I'm been wanting to say that for the past six months."

What? What just happened? Oh my god. Oh my god. It's like someone just hit my in the face with a textbook. Actual tears form in my eyes and I run away before I let her see them. Portia had always seemed a little fake to me but she called that acting if I was even a tiny bit interested in being popular I was this vain teenager obsessed with the status quo. I literally don't know where to go, I have made no friends, I am thousands of miles away from home and everyone in this place looks like they could kill me. There's no practical place to run to so I just keep running.

Eventually I hit a lake and just decide to sit there by a rock for a while. It almost seems peaceful until I look into the water and see green faces looking back up at me. Gods I hate this place. I run away again to a field of strawberries where I can sit by myself until unfortunately somebody finds me.

"What are you doing there?" says a friendly voice.

A girl my age stoops down and grins at me. She has on a straw hat an orange t shirt that should come with a warning sign and has her straw colored hair in two braids.

"Sorry," I say, dabbing at my eyes making sure my mascara hasn't begun to run.

"It's alright," says the girl sitting down next to me in the strawberry fields. "Anything I can do to help? My name is Oksana by the way."

"I'm Titana," I say.

"Ooh like the fairy queen," says Oksana with a grin. "I remember you from yesterday when Percy announced your arrival. Any luck on your claiming?"

I shake my head. "Nope, who's your godly parent?" I ask.

"Apollo, god of archery, poetry and music," she explains. "I was actually here giving one of the satyrs a music lesson. He really needs one. When ever he tries to grow strawberry vines with his reed pipes, jalapenos grow in their place. That's why our food has been so spicy lately. It's kind of disgusting."

I laugh. "Maybe he's my dad, poetry and music don't sound too bad."

"Yeah he's pretty cool," Oksana agrees. "I've never met him though. Most of us campers have never met our godly parent unless some of us have been on quests in which case you might meet a god or two. Personally I'd love to go on a quest, but I'm not good anything much besides music."  
"How do you get a quest?" I ask.

"They're actually in the process of forming one right now," Oksana says brightly. "You see our Oracle, Rachel had this prophecy and they think it will happen really soon. It's just the usuals going though I assume. Percy, Annabeth, Piper and what was that other guy? Oh right, Jason. I haven't really heard the whole thing though in it's entirety."

"Prophecy... oracle," I mutter. "This stuff is hard to keep track of."  
"You'll get use to it," Oksana says. "I think I just heard the horn. That signals the end of free hour," she explains. "You've got archery next right? Me too."

As much as I still want to claw Portia in the eyeballs for dumping me, I at least made a new friend so I'm not completely alone. Maybe at Camp Half Blood I can start over a bit, be a little less fake or whatever Portia meant by that. I am not fake, like who on this planet would think that about me, I'm like the bubbliest person ever, but I mean whatever, hopefully I won't change too much. Right now I hope I can just make it through the rest of the day without impaling myself with an arrow, after all I've never even tried to pick up a bow before. Anyways, onward!


	4. I Become the Not-So-New Girl

**Author's note: IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! Is fifteen too old to love Percy Jackson? Nope, I don't think so. BTW guys please check out the twitter account I made for Titania: TitaniaAmor. She's going to be posting some cool updates and stuff that won't be featured in the book ;)**

Chapter Four: I Become the Not-So-New Girl

Oksana is a freaking liar. As we arrive at archery several people make way for her to shoot first which at first I'm like; oh they're just being nice, but no, Oksana shoots a 95 out of 100 from like thirty feet away.

"I thought you said you were only good at music," I say as she hangs her bow back up on the rack.

Oksana gives a small smile. "Well I didn't want to brag. Children of Apollo are just naturally good archers. Don't worry about it. Here I'll show you how to nock an arrow."

She guides me through the motions and I actually don't completely suck, and by that I mean my arrow doesn't immediately fall of the string like I'd expected it to. Pulling back is the hard part and suddenly become hyper aware that everyone is watching me since I'm the new girl. What the hell, I figure and release the arrow. I reach for my second arrow before realizing where the first arrow has landed, a perfect ten.

"Beginner's luck?" I say as several jaws drop.

"Do it again," says Oksana and I do. I pull back the arrow, which is not an easy task and release. It's not as good as the first one but still a 9/10.

"Are you sure you haven't done this before?" Oksana says and I shake my head.

"Never," I say.

The rest of my arrows are very good as well and I beat everyone in my cabin with a score of 89. Only Oksana and a couple of the other girls in Apollo have better scores than me and even they seem impressed.

"You're dad has to be Apollo," one girl says.

"Maybe giving you such a good score was his way of claiming you," another girl suggests.

Really? Could I have just been claimed? I really don't want to spend another night in the Hermes Cabin and if Oksana and I were sisters it would make camp life ten times easier.

"Claiming doesn't work like that," Oksana says, coming over after hanging up her bow again. "But Apollo is a good bet, I wouldn't be surprised," she smiles. "You wouldn't happen to have any musical skill or poetry would you?"

I shrug. "I played the cello in middle school. I wasn't very good though," I admit.

"Not all of us are good at music," a chubby blonde girl said. "You should talk to Will, our counselor. He could probably figure it out. He spends most of his time in the hospital wing these days."

After archery, my day goes back to sucking as I find I'm no good at rockwall and the children of Hermes seem to be very good at it. By the time rotations end I'm extremely exhausted, like I'm into work outs and stuff but this is ridiculous. Forget my diet, I'm starving! Unfortunately I have to wait another hour until lunch but I notice a buzz going on near the front of the boarders. A jog to catch up with the crowd.

"What is it?" I ask as I approach Oksana who is already on the scene.

"A new camper," she explains. "Lots of us have trouble getting here. Oooh, she looks really hurt."

"Make a path," says a boy with blonde hair and the build of a surfer. He's pushing a stretcher and I see him lift someone on to it. She's bleeding pretty badly. The girl is african american with really dark skin and a buzz cut. Her green army jacket makes her skinny waist almost unnoticeable which is what I hate about skinny girls, not that I'm not skinny, I totally am. I'm hot, like snow melts around me hot, that's how hot. Following the girl is another half goat thing and he seems to be telling anyone who would listen what had happened. I only make out part of what he's saying.

"She fought it all by herself!" he exclaims. "She saved my life too."

Big deal, I think as I walk away from the scene. I could totally fight a monster thing if I had to. Maybe not one like the scorpion in my bedroom but bugs are obvi different. I feel like I might have to fight something in order to get a little attention around here. After my initial arrival, most people had begun treating me like I was invisible.

"It's because you haven't really made a name for yourself yet," Oksana explains a little later. "You have to do something heroic for people to notice you, no offence."

"Does that mean I have to get a quest?" I ask.

Oksana laughs. "It's nearly impossible to get a quest when your new, especially when you're unclaimed. It is odd though, you're fourteen and still your godly parent hasn't claimed you. It's suppose to happen by the time you're thirteen."

I heave a sigh. Why won't daddy just hurry up and claim me already? I've waited long enough haven't I?

Before dinner, Oksana explains to me the rules for capture the flag, a game we're going to be playing tonight. I knew the general rules already but of course at camp half blood there has to be some kind of twist. Oksana leads me to the weaponry shed and I learn that were actually expected to shoot freaking arrows at each other and are allowed to literally run someone through with an electric spear per say.

"We'll work on your upper body strength later but for now let's go with a bow with a lighter pull back," Oksana says and selects a bow from the rack.

The bow is a strong sturdy wood, nothing special except for the pink bead that marks where the arrow should be nocked. I hear the horn for dinner just in time and together we head over to the dinning pavilion but are forced to part and sit down with our cabins. As soon as I sit down, another girl sits beside me, the girl I'd seen a few hours ago being carried off in a stretcher. She looks better and by that I mean, not bleeding or unconscious. Part of me wants to hate her as she starts getting all the attention from the cabin mates who had ignored me for the most part and the other part of me wants her as a friend. I quickly learn the girl's name is Addison.

"Addison where are you from?" asks the tall, skinny Hermes girl.

"San Francisco," she says shyly.

A watch as the Hermes kids exchange odd looks. Obviously something is in San Francisco that they're not willing to talk about.

Addison goes on to answer more questions but I can tell she's really shy and is hardly audible. Thankfully the others seem to pick up on this and quickly lose interest in her, returning to their normal conversation. I'm just about ready for a quiet meal of a day's reflection when Addison turns to me.

"How long have you been here?" she asks.

"A day," I explain and shift uncomfortably in my seat. "Er, uh I saw what happened to you earlier. Are you okay? You looked really injured."

"I'm okay," Addison says softly but she doesn't sound sure of it. "So are you claimed or undecided, like me?" she asks.

"Undecided," I tell her.

I'm about to ask her whether it's her mom or dad who is the godly one but Percy, the activities director calls the camp's attention and gets us ready for capture the flag. This is where the knots in my stomach really start tying. I don't want to go out there and fight people. I'd rather just stick with the Aphrodite cabin and bead necklaces by the lake but of course now my cabin decides to acknowledge my existence by shoving a metal helmet into my chest.

"Shoot 'em in the face," Travis whispers as we line up.

Oh gods, I mutter. The Ares cabin starts screaming bloody murder and I think they might just charge at us all right now. Dear gods on Mount Olympus somebody help me.


	5. Daughter of Rome

Author's Note: Sorry, just decided do come back this story. Still battling with carpal tunnel so I'll be slow. Sorry about that, enjoy!

Chapter Five:

Ok what idiot thought it would be a good idea to pit teenagers with dangerous weapons against each other in an all out battle to capture a flag? After what happened at archery, the Hermes cabin won't let me sit out by the side lines and insist that I play along as one of their archers. Even Addison has to play and she was mortally wounded only a few hours ago. I want to run and jump in the bushes right now honestly. This is totally not cool.

"Just follow me," Oksana says. "Archers are usually on defence, up in the trees," she explains, pointing to the forest canopy above.

It's a long trek up there I realize. How am I supposed to climb a tree? That's ridiculous. I can't even climb the rope in gym. Some of the kids laugh at me as I attempt and fail several times to get up there, finally one dryad thinks I'm so pathetic, she takes pity on me, first turning into human form and letting me climb on her shoulders and then turning back into a tree. My stomach drops below me as I'm elevated way up high and scamper over to Oksana's branch. Below I can see Addison on border patrol. She's wielding a sword.

"Do we just wait here for someone to come?" I ask.

Oksana nods. "When you aim though you can't aim for any body parts. Instead what we do is aim for the shields. Enough arrows will render the shields too heavy and they'll be forced to drop them. If you had flaming arrows like me you can try to set their armor on fire, but actually shooting someone is against the rules."  
I breathed a sigh of relief. At least that made me feel a little better. Just then I hear the siren announcing the games start and immediately all the stress returns. It's almost enough to make me fall off my tree branch.

It's not long before I catch movement coming from the other team. A group of Ares kids are flanking the northern border and I watch Addison takes a stance. As the Ares cabin charges I hear the distinct sound of twelve strings being pulled back by the other archers and I do the same.

"Hold..." says Oksana. "Hold..."

The sting is to heavy I can hardly hold on any longer. My muscles are screaming for me to let go.

"Fire!" she shouts and just as the Ares kids are in range, twelve flaming arrows and one boring one dive into the shields of our enemies. I'm more relieved I didn't hit Addison than anything else but no I realize it's up to her to take down six of the biggest, brutes in camp.

"Should we help her?" I ask as the six Ares kids encircled her, all snarling with huge weapons in their hands.

Oksana bites her lip. "It's too risky now," she says. "We might hit the new girl by mistake."

I look on in horror as one girl, lifts a spear and is literally about to run her through with a blast of light blows her back. Okay fine, I screamed but what was I expecting? When the light clears Addison is still in the middle of the circle surrounded by a group of stunned Ares kids, only now she has a weird symbol floating above her head and she's dressed in full battle armor. I hear sudden intakes of breath from the archers. Obviously this means something but of course no one wants to explain it to me.

"She's been claimed," Oksana says finally. "This is not good."

What! Okay first of all how did she get claimed within her first few hours of being here, like I'm here too, I exist, thank you very much and second, why is that a bad thing?

"Addison, daughter of the war goddess we claim you for our team," say the biggest of the Ares kids. Some of them even bow to her.

"What in Hades are they doing!" Oksana exclaims and some of the other archers explode in outbursts as well.

Addison looks confused but the Ares kids seem to have taken her in as their own and start guiding her towards the flag.

"Don't they realize how bad this is!" Oksana shouts and the enemy hears her. I dart out of the way as an axe comes spinning towards us but it falls totally short of the branches. Still I can hear my heart hammering in my chest.

Unfortunately it isn't long before the Ares cabin plus Addison come back within our range, this time with the flag. We nock our arrows again and shoot at anything but flesh and manage to knock down a few people but not enough to stop the flag from crossing the creek. A horn blows signaling the game has been won and several of the other archers groan and scamper down the trees.

"We have got to work on that," Oksana says as I shamefully and very slowly pick my way down the trunk of the tree. Thankfully it's easier to get down than up.

All the campers seem to be gathered around Addison again. She seems like quite the attention hog today. The glowing symbol is gone now but her angelic battle armor still remains. At first I think everyone is congratulating her but I soon realize they're all standing around her, murmuring to each other. The half horse guy, Chiron comes over and kneels before Addison and I expect he wants us to do the same.

"Hail Addison Okeke," Chiron says in a grim tone. "Daughter of Rome."


	6. Camp Fire or Something

Chapter Six:  
With that there is an outcry from everyone in camp. It's utter chaos and the only one who seems more confused than I am is Addison herself.

"What does he mean daughter of Rome?" I have to shout over the noise.

Oksana who had been yelling about something inaudible with the rest of camp stops, but has to yell for me to hear what she's saying.

"She's been claimed by Bellona," she shouts. "It's a Roman goddess of war."  
"Why does that matter?" I yell over the noises but I don't get a reply.

"Silence," shouts a voice much louder than everyone else and everyone gets very quiet all of a sudden and I soon see why. It's Percy, Camp Half Blood's finest hero.

"All camp counselors in the big house in five minutes," he says. "Emergency meeting now. Everyone else proceed to the amphitheater."  
There is utter chaos as everyone treks to the big stone circle that surrounds soon relit camp fire. Some people are angry at the Ares cabin because they should have reported Addison immediately, others don't want to talk about it at all. I'm a little surprised when Addison pushes away from the crowd and catches up with me and Oksana who are walking a little further ahead.

"You okay?" I ask. "Sorry we shot at you."

Addison shrugs. "It's okay," she says. "Sorry I switched teams, I just didn't want to have to fight the Ares cabin."

"You don't remember anything do you?" Oksana asks suddenly which catches both of us off guard.

"What do you mean?" Addison asks.

"Just like, before you came to Camp Half Blood, do you remember anything before that?" she asks.

It seems like an odd question but it seems to stump Addison a little bit.

"Um, I lived in San Francisco," she says slowly like she's struggling remembering exact details. "With my dad, Frederick," she adds. "My dad is some professor at this university but he remarried this other woman who didn't like me so I ran away when I was seven."

"Where did you run to?" Oksana intrigues.

Addison's brow furrows. "I ran to..." she stumbles. "I ran to, I don't know I just stayed in San Francisco!" she exclaims and runs off further ahead in the crowd.

I turn to Oksana and roll my eyes. "What's her problem," I say in a sarcastic sort of tone.

Oksana gives me a wavering look.

The entire camp gathers in the amphitheater, a large stone circle surrounding what would usually be a camp fire. A large mass of orange camp shirts with varying amounts of battle armor rings around the center where an area has been cleared for a few of the camp leaders to address the group. One of them, a teenage girl with bright red hair and paint splattered jeans, another I recognized as Jason, one of the camp's hero's that everyone always talked about. He was a muscled blonde kid who would be pretty cute if he didn't already have a girlfriend; that Piper girl from Aphrodite cabin.

"What's going on!" people were shouting.

Jason and the redhead did their best to quiet people down but it was hard to get the whole camp to shut up without any of their usual counselors telling them what to do. I noticed Addison making her way to the front and Rachel grabbing her head, pulling her into the middle of the the amphitheatre.

"Who is she?" asked the crowd.

It's dark now and someone lights the fire in the center of the amphitheatre. Long flames illuminate the faces of the three half bloods in the center but leaves me feeling hot and miserable in the dark. I'm so tired right now, I just wish these people could learn to leave some things for the morning.

Jason continued to be unable to quiet down the crowd until the counselors returned and Percy Jackson demanded silence. Even Chiron's expression goes blank after that. We all stare nervously inwards towards the campfire where Percy, Jason, Piper, Annabeth, Chiron and three others stand alongside Addison; one the redhead and the other two, a blonde surfer kid, and a pale scary looking boy wearing all black. Who would wear that in this kind of weather?

"Fellow demigods," Percy says, speaking loudly and addressing the camp. "Tonight one of us has been claimed by Rome, but that is not a reason to panic," he said quickly as everyone began to talk again. "We are still on good terms with the Romans," Percy explains, whatever that means.

"She's a spy!" someone calls from the left of me.

More outbreaks as people throw out random conspiracies about Addison, who's standing by the redhead and looking very scared. Percy quiets everyone again.

"Reyna wouldn't send a spy," Jason says, stepping forward.

"We don't know anything about her," another guy shouts. "Reyna could just be finishing up what Octavian did to us. What are we, just suppose to take your word that Reyna's all butterflies and rainbows and will just leave us alone."

"She's not," says Jason coldly. "But you should take our word. All of you are blowing this way out of proportion. We are at peace with Camp Jupiter."  
More outbreak from the crowd. I turn to Oksana but just then the redhead steps forward, pulling Addison along with her.

"She's the one," says the girl with red hair. This times she turns to Chiron and Percy and repeats herself. "She's the one."

The crowd goes silent. For real this time. Chiron frowns and I can see Percy beginning to protest.

"Why is it always the fresh faces," I hear him say as he strokes his beard and peers down from his freaky horse body at the trembling Addison.

Percy shakes his head and steps back to address the crowd again.

"Everyone go back to your cabins, good night," he says.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Who do you think Titania's parent is?


End file.
